Social networks are used by businesses to advertise and market products. For example, a company may use a social network to announce the launch of a new product. Consumers then write blogs, send messages, etc. discussing and reviewing the new product. The product launch may be considered a success or a failure based on the social network interactions surrounding the new product. For example, the product launch may be considered a success when a large number of consumers generate a large number of positive social network reviews about the new product. The product launch may be considered a failure when there is little “buzz” surrounding the launch and only a small number of consumers generate a relatively small number of social network reviews. The product launch also could be considered a failure when a large number of negative reviews are generated about the new product.
Companies face a challenge monitoring and managing social network interactions regarding their products. For example, a large company may have millions of followers on their social networks that send or post millions of messages related to different products. Companies may not have the human resources to manually monitor and manage such large amounts of social network traffic.
Even if companies had the human resources to monitor related social network traffic, it would still be difficult to quantitatively measure the performance of social network marketing campaigns. For example, the marketing campaign may not necessarily be directed to increasing the sales of a specific product, but may be directed to increasing general product awareness. Reviewing a small window of subjective consumer comments sent over social networks may not provide the quantitative analytics needed to clearly determine the success of the product awareness marketing campaign.